The Sun. — London, England, 1864-10-18 00:00:00

Mr, Samuel Laing on India. Last Taesday evening Mr Laing, late Finance Minister for India, gave a lecture in the Grammar School at Kirkwall, his native place, in accordance with the invitation of the Young Men's Literary Association. The Orkney Herald reports the lecture at length, and from it we gather that he opened by remarking upon the manner in which his work was received at home. He found, greatly to his surprise, on landing in England, that instead of having satis fied every one that Indian finance was restored, Sir i Charles Wood was taking every opportunity to ra• press his countrymen with the belief that his budget was a delusion. Of course he was very angry, but he could now look back with equanimity at the con• troversy, especially, he added, because every one of his disputed figures had been substantiated by the result. But he admitted that Sir Charles Wood's attack upon him was not so entirely without excuse as it appeared to him at the time. His character as a Finance Minister was not sufficiently high to justify Sir Charles Wood in taking for granted his assertion that the chronic deficit of £6,000,000 had in a few short months been converted into a surplus. Sir Charles Wood acted from a sense of public duty, and he bore him no grudge. Leaving this matter, Mr Laing traced the progress of India from the small settlement of a few factories, scarcely a cen tury ago, to the empire of 150,000,000 subjects now under our rule; and then he spoke of the condition of Indian finance when he landed. He found a deficit of £6,000,000; newly imposed taxes unpopu lar and unproductive; the credit of the Government low ; and only £28,000,000 ail-ear revenue, admit. ting reduction. Out of this they saved £5,000,000 by reduction in three months; £2,000,000 more during the next year, and that with the buoyancy of the revenue gave a surplus, after remitting taxation and increasing outlay upon public works. No salaries were reduced by these savings, though regiments were disbanded and offices were consolidated or abolished. He always considered the principle of managing public affairs should be the same as in private business. The plans he pursued in India were precisely similar to those he had adopted when called to the chairman. ship of the Brighton Railway at a time when its finances were at a low ebb. The question of bar. racks and public buildings was very like that of stations and platelayers' cottages ; so also the ques. tion whether one battalion could be safely trusted to the work of two, was similar to the question, could one pointsman instead of two be trusted at a certain junction. Patience in hearing evidence, common sense in weighing the pros and cons, and prompti. tude in carrying out the decision, were required in both cases. Having described the changes made in the government on the ending of the East India Company's rule, he said there was one grave pies tion on which he always differed from Sir Charles Wood, and upon which he felt the greatest un. easiness, that is, as to the extent to which the government of India is to be conducted in India or in England. " Admitting that some cheek on the absolute power of a Governor- General, as wielded by Lord Dalhousie and the great viceroys who preceded him, is necessary and desirable, the question is, shall this be done as re gards England by the general supervision and con. trol of the Secretary of State in important matters; and as regards India by decentralisation and in creasing the strength and authority of those great councils of the State where public matters are dis cussed and different interests are represented; orshall it be done by demolishing the authority of all Indian government from the Viceroy downwards, and prac tically vesting the government in a Secretary of State and a council of retired Indians sitting iu Lon don P The former was the principle advocated by Lord Canning and all the distinguished Indian cfficials with whom I came in contact in India. The latter had been the principle held by the Home Government, and to a great extent acted on for the last 3 years." He was of opinion that this system impairs the prestige and authority of the Governor-General, always the miinspring of the government of India. It seemed to him that to centralise everything in London was only to repeat in a tenfold more dan gerous manner the mistake of Lord Dalhousie in centring everything in Calcutta. The inevitable result of the system was that the colonial Govern ment would be unpopular. It was now unpopular in Canada, Australia, the Cape, and everywhere, and would be so, so long as it attempted to govern distant colonies from Downing -street. In three cases out of four it was wrong, with the very best intention, from the want of local knowledge ; in the fourth case, where it was right, it was sure to be misunderstood, and often more bitterly abused than when it had made a mistake. He then spoke of the competitive system, and feared it had been carried too far in regard to Indian appointments. The old system, whatever may have been its defects, worked well in the essential point of giving us an admirable body of public servants, who were,' as a general rule, proud of the service, and attached to the country. Competitive examina tion may give a class of equal abilities, but will not give men of equal standing, and equally attached to India by ties of family connexion. The first man whom you may pick up on the streets may be in■ trinsically as good a man as the son of Sir John Lawrence, but Mr Laing doubted if he is likely to be as good a man for the special work you want out of an ledian official, In conclusion Mr Laing spoke of the future of India. " Lord Canning," he said, " left India in the flood tide of prosperity, and at the very pinnacle of his own personal reputation and popularity. The recollections of the mutiny were not only effaced, but a new and unknown feeling of loyalty to the Crown and attachment to British rule had sprun g u p among a l arge c l ass o f the native population. The official European com munity was proud of its chief; the nonofficial Europeans, once bitterly hostile, were tho roughly reconciled ; and when Lord Canning left India, it is hard to say whether he was most esteemed and beloved by natives or Europeans. When he met Lord Elgin on the steps of Government House he handed over to him a new empire, pacified, reconciled, reorganised, in a state of the highest material and financial prosperity, and full of hope for the future. It is because I had the privilege of sharing in the council of that illus trious statesman, and of taking a zealous and active, though humble part in the great work which was going on, that I have presumed to-night on the patience of an indulgent audience to discourse at length on subjects which to me must always retain the deepest interest. It is because I feel this deep interest that I have th,nght it my duty, in drawing a picture of India's present prosperity, not to omit mention of those rising dangers by which, iu my judgment, that prosperity may be imperiled. I see nothing in the situation of India itself which is not full of promise. I see no limit to the material pros. perity which awaits it as communications are opened up, commerce extended, and agriculture improved; and I see no limit to the social, political, educa tional, and ultimately religious and moral advance which will surely attend on this development of peaceful progress and contact with expanding civic lisation. The only cloud in the horizon seems to me to be the tendency to centralise details of Go vernment too much in an office 8,000 miles off, and where, in the absence of free contact with the varied classes, European and native. Indian society, red tape of necessity assumed undue preponderance, and a narrow, illiberal, and irritating tone is given to the relations between the supreme power and the i body of public servants, from the Governor- General downwards, by whom the work of govern. rug India must, after all, be practically d o ne on the scot. I thi n k we shall be shutting our eyes to all ex perience if vet) are not led to apprehend that, with ttu ernPire so rapidly i n a ll t h e e l ements of wealth, intelligenc e, itnd independ ence th e unpopu . attended larity which has all attempt s t o concentrate details of government .nl:It rning-streetdid not s o on extend from the officialia non-officiale =niter, and as in th e celeb°ra th t d inatance of the Mysore grants, unite all Eneland i n one chorus of i n di gnan t remonstrance ag e i sm , a of thestorm Gov ern ment too distant to hear even the whistle whien it had raised. The other great danger whic h I see is that of the deterioration of the great Indian ser. vices by too complete a rupture with their p ast traditions, and too absolute en application of the favourite English theories of the day. After all, men, not measures, are the great requisite in India. As long as we have a succession of men in the civil and military services like those of wh )n - i the two Lawrences, Frere, ()dram, Montgomery, Grant, Edmonstone, and Beadon may be taken as the type, I have no fear for India. But shall we re.• tain that stamp of men when the system under which they were selected and trained has been obliterated, and when the posts of emolument and prospects of preferment have been con• siderably curtailed ? Will a staff corps, to be re cruited by officers who may volunteer from the Queen's regiments serving in India, give us the same class of men as the cadets of Addiscombe—men who, like Havelock, were content for years with the patient drudgery and hardly earned pay of saheb. tern service in a native Indian regiment, while all all the time they had in them to be ealled foreh in case of need, the elements of the hero and the states man ? For my part I can only say that I hope for the best, but that it is a hazardous experiment. It is an experiment which I would not myself have ventured to make. I would not, to use a homely phrase, have" put all my eggs in the same basket. , ' I would have retained the old organisation of the Indian army in Madras and Bombay, where it had remained faithful, and confined the experiment of reorganisation in the first instance at least to Bengal when the native army had dissolved itself by the mutiny. I would have retained Addiscombe sad Hayleybury, and introduced the system of competitive examination only partially, and at an earlier age. I would have given the new system a fair start by such a prompt and liberal settlement with all superseded officers as should make the whole service feel they had been dealt with generously. But these are mere dreams. I had no power in these matters, and in all probability never shall have any. I merely signalise dangers which appear to me to menace the future, but which I heartily hope may be suc cessfully surmounted. After all, / have great faith in the good sense and sterling qualities of Britons of every grade and under all circumstances. If de fects are found to exist in India they will be dis covered there and amended. The country is so prosperous that it will take a great deal to hurt it. The finances are in such a state that, with continued economy in great matters, money is no obstacle in carrying out reforms proved to be desirable. The only thing I fear is the centralisation of authority at a distance, until officials on the spot lose the habit of thinking and acting for themselves, while the distant authorities ignore dangers till they become serious, simply because they live 8,000 miles off in a different circle of ideas and surround ing atmosphere. I must now conclude. I fear you may think I have anticipated the privilege of old age, to which I sin hardly yet entitled, by indulging in the pleasure of heating myself talk on topics more interesting to myself, from personal recollec. tion, than they can possibly be to a general audience. Bat they are topics of real importance and interest, which will form hereafter a portion, and that per haps not the least considerable of the history of the age in which we live. They are topics which vitally affect the present welfare and future des tinies of the population of 150,000,000 souls which Providence has entrusted to the guidance of the British race in India." The Late Father Mathew. (From the 11 vies ) If any man ever earned a perpetual memory in his city and country, Father Mathew deserved the statue which has just been erected in Cork. He was a greater benefactor to Ireland than all its so called Liberators and patriots combined, and Cork was at once the origin and the headquarters of his work, and his final resting-place. If he had never been known as the Apostle of Temperance Cork could hardly have forgotten him. He had worked for something like twenty years among the poorest and most degraded of the population, and his in. fluence was firmly established throughout the city long before the memorable evening on which he signed the pledge with the characteristic words, " Here goes in the name of God." His perfect ' charity, his free and open earnestness, his aim plicity acd truth as a preacher, bad won him affec• Hon and obedience, and when he joined the temper ance movement he curried to it an influence which had been hardly and laboriously earned. Of the immense benefits which he conferred on his country when ho threw himself into that cause it is sufficient to say that in three years the consumption of spirits in Ireland had diminished by one-half. From being over twelve million gallons in 1839 it had sunk in 1842 to less than six millions and a half. Of this benefit Cork must have received a larger share than any other city or neighbourhood. There the new work began, and there it continued even to Father Mathew's death; for on his deathbed, when he was barely sensible, men knelt at his bedside to repeat the pledge, and received from his hands the sign of the Cross on their foreheads. His memory appears from our correspondent's description last week to have not lost its charm over the population of his city. Fifty thousand people crowded into the streets to witnees the procession which preceded the inau. guration of the statue ; yet there was not a single policeman to be seen on duty through the town, and there was not a single instance of disorderly conduct. Many women, even with children in their arms, and mothers with infants at the breast, were to be seen in the crowd. The corporation, all the trades of the city, and the Friendly Societies joined in the pro cession, In short, the whole city seems to have gone out to celebrate the memory of their friend and see his features once more. Nothing could be a more appropriate tribute to his memory or a more fitting inauguration of his statue than this universal yet temperate enthusiasm, this spectacle of the whole population of his adopted city forming one united and orderly multitude, animated by one generous impulse. What other memory or what other prin. ciple or object would unite the population of say Irish town in a similar demonstration ? Father Mathew stands far above the vulgar crowd of teetotalers or total abstainers. He had nothing but the name in common with the fanatics or simpletons who would treat all the vices and diseases of humanity by the water-cure. The enthusiasm of the movement may have carried him somewhat beyond the goal which would be fixed by a cooler reason, but there was . no folly, nor fanaticism, nor ignorance, nor want of considera tion in the course he adopted. He weighed the sub ject long and carefully, he estimated it in all its bearings, and he supported it upon his deliberate judgment. His life grows out of the circumstances of his time, and derives all its harmony from them. At the time when he commenced the movement Ire land had reached the highest point in its consump tion of spirituous drinks. In the course of many years' constant work among the poor of Cork Father Mathew had witnessed the ruinous and debasing effects which followed this intemperance. He came to the conclusion that if he could put a stop to the drinking he would strike at the root of an immense amount of the evil and misery around him. He found that he could not do this effectually by the usual religious and moral motives for mode ration, and he saw no effectual means open to him but to get rid of drinking altogether if possible. For this purpose he signed the pledge, and became the apostle of total abstinence. He did not main tain, as fanatics do now, that there is anything wrong in itself in drinking stimulating liquors, but he simply believed that there was no other way of shaking off the vast incubus of drink which was dragging his countrymen down but to threw it off resolutely at once. His object was to rescue the people from the vices which made their country miserable. He convinced himself that drunkenness was a principal cause of these, and he set himself to remove the very possibility of drunkenness. It was by means of the nobleness, simplicity, and truth of this object that his extraordinary powers were able to attain such a success. He did not attack -any isolated vice, nor did he net his appeals upon any mere theory, nor touch upon any partial or subordinate emotion, but he worked upon the most fundamental principles of religion and uorality. It I was this nobleness and loftiness in his purpose which raised him so high and commanded such universal sympathy. Abstinence was not au object with him, but a means, and men saw in the very enthusiasm with which he threw himself into a generally despised movement the evidence of the J profound religion and love of virtue which absorbed his whole nature. His labours, in short, as the Apostle of Temperance were undertaken only in the discharge of his duties as a priest. There never was a greater misconception than when men ima gined that he had some political purpose in view. He wanted to make his countrymen religious and moral, and he pursued that object with a sincerity and enthusiasm, and at the same time a collected thoughtfulness, which it is safe to say has never been surpassed. Considering his life in this way, and seeing the harmony of his great undertaking with the still nobler and greater tenour of his whole nature, our love and admiration become wholly independent of our general opinion of the so-called temperance movement. As a general rule, that name is an obvious misuse of words. Temperance consists in using things temperately, and is actually made im. possible by refusing to use them at all. Father Mathew may claim the name of the Apostle of Temperance, for it was only in the interests of tem perance that he preached total abstinence, but tee totalers in general have no right to the use of the word. Their virtue is but an intemperate avoidance of intemperance. In ordinary circumstances, there fore, the movement will receive the support of no man of common sense. We should soon go back to primitive barbarism if we abandoned every pro duct of civilisation which is liable to abuse. More over, if the total abstainers could carry the day, they would simply annihilate a virtue. The ques. tion from this point of view is not worth wasting an argument upon. Bat experience seems to show that in such circumstances as those in which Father Mathew commenced his work the pledge offers the only chance of recovery. The fascination of drink to habitual drunkards is something quite incomprehensible. Let them but touch it, and all their resolutions of moderation are drowned. On the other hand, it seems also proved by expe rience that, except in unusual cases, they can leave off drinking entirely without any bad results. It must be added that it seems undeniable that, as a rule, all the ordinary demands of physical labour may be met without any recourse to stimulants. In exceptional cases, therefore, the pledge becomes a valuable moral instrument, and there can be no doubt that it has done an immense amount of good. Only do not let it be urged as a universal obliga tion, and its preachers may be wished good speed. No doubt, too, considering that, as we have said, alcoholic stimulant seems generally unnecessary for the support of healthy physical labour, it would be often bat wise economy in a labourer to deny him -631f what can be little more than a luxury. Our working classes would be in a very different posi tion if but half the money were saved which is an. necessarily spent in drink. To enforce all these considerations it is only neces• sary to remember the life of Father Mathew. The actual observance of the pledge is, no doubt, decay. ing even among the populations which were most immediately under his influence. It is inevitable that it should do so. But the effect of his preach ing and his example will support temperance long after his followers have broken through the tyranny of total abstinence. As we read of hundreds of thousands in Ireland, in this country, and in Ame rica having signed the pledge under his influence, it becomes impossible to conceive the amount of good which he must have accomplished. When will Irish agitation pursue the same object by equally legitimate means? When will they see, as he did, that the weakness and unhappiness of his country are due entirely to the vices or failings of his countrymen. and that the only thing necessary to enable their splendid qualities to achieve the success which is their due in the practice of the simple qualities of honesty, industry, patience, and perseverance ? He who should succeed in arousing Irishmen to a recognition of this truth, and in making them act upon it, would deserve a statue in every city in Ireland. THE SUN, LONDON, TUESDAY EVENING, OCTOBER 18, 1864. Australian Transportation. The following minute ,submitted by theVietorian Cabinet to his Excellency Sir Charles Darling, reached London yesterday, and has been forwarded to us for publication : The copy of Mr Cardwell's despatch, in reply to the re solutions of both Houses of Parliament against the con tinuance of transportation to Western Australia, which your Excellency did me the honour to transmit to me, has been duly laid before my colleagues. It is to the Government of this colony matter of the ut most regret that all eff its made by them, the Parliament, and the people of Victoria, in common with the other colo nists, have failed to secure that measure of justice the colo nists had a right to expect; but the decision of her Majesty's Government is still more deeply to be deplored as at direct variance with the statement made by the Duke of New castle in 1853, and in contravention of the policy which it was deelared by his Grace to be the duty of her Majesty's Jovernment to adopt towards the Australian colonies. In the concluding paragraph of a minute which I had the honour to submit to your Excellency in September last, I felt it necessary to indicate the course this Government would be forced to pursue in the event of the threatened continuance of transportation being carried out; and it now becomes my duty to state to your Excellency the steps which your advisers have felt it imperative upon them to take in the discharge of their responsibility to the people of this colony. Upon a careful consideration of Mr Cardwell's despatch, written in the face of all the earnest representations ad dressed to her Majesty's Government, it has been forced upon the attention of myself and my colleagues that further remonstrance is in itself useless—and that the time has arrived when it is incumbent upon us in the exercise of our powers of self - government to initiate legislation in connec tion with the colonies whose interests are alike affected for our common protection. I have accordingly addressed a circular to the Chief Se cretary of each of the colonies interested, inviting the co operation of their respective Governments in framing a measure to be submitted to the consideration of the several Parliaments prohibitive of all intercourse whatsoever with Western Australia, in order that her position as the only convict colony in Australia may be distinctly marked. Sufficient time has not yet elapsed tor me to have received any reply, but from the universal feeling of dissatisfaction which prevails throughout the free colonies I can have no doubt that the proposition will meet with their approval. Intimately connected with this proposition is the ques tion of the postal service with Great Britain. No measure for the isolation of Western Australia could be efficient while the mail steamers continue to call at King George's Sound—and, although serious ineovenience must result from any interruption to frequent and regular postal com munication, so satisfied is the Government that the people of Victoria, in the dread of the continuance of transportation, would deny themselves the privileges of the mail service than be exposed even to thH possibility of the introduction of convicts, that I have to beg your Excellency will be pleased to notify formally to the Imperial author ities that unless the terms of the existing arrangement with the Pen insular and Oriental Company be altered, and the company consent that their packets shall not touch at any port in Western Australia, the Government of Victoria will, at the expiration of six months from the Ist of November next, cease to contribute to the annual subsidy; and further that they withdraw their offer to join in establishing a fort nightly service except upon similar conditions. I cannot express to your Excellency the pain your ad visers have felt in being obliged to take this course ; but to have hesitated would have been to neglect their highest duty. In requesting that your Excellency will forward a copy of this memorandum to the Right fit n. the Secretary of State for the Colonies, I would venture to suggest that it be accompanied by yaur Excellency's testimony to the reality of the feelings of the people of Victoria, as made known by memorials and through the public press ; and also to the discontent which has manifested itself throughout the colony, at the decision of her Majesty's Government. JAMES M'CULLO CH, Chief Secretary's-office, Melbourne, Aug. 24, SERIOUS ACCIDENT TO THE STEAMER ONTARIO. --Yesterday a report was received in Liverpool that the National Steam Navigation Company's new steamer On tario, Capt. Brooking, which was on her first voyage (to Alexandria) had gone on the Cross Sands, near Yarmouth, and was in a critical position, Steam tugs were in attend ance, and it was haped that she would be got off without much damage. [ADVERTISEMENT.]—HoIIuway'a Ointment and Pills.— Abscesses, Erysipelas, Piles,—Unvarying success attends all those who treat these diseases according to the simple printed directions wrapped round each pot and box. They are invaluable to the young and timid, whose bashfulness sometimes endangers life. A little attention, moderate perseverance, and trifling expense will enable the most diffident to conduct any case to a happy issue, without exposing secret infirmities to any one. Tho Ointment arrests the spreading inflammation, restrains the excited vessels, cools the overheated skin, alleviates throbbing and smarting pains, and gives great ewe. The same directions also clearly point out when and how Holloway's Pills are to be taken ; their purifying and regulating powers may assist by adjusting and strengthening the constitution. MIDDLESEX SESSIONS, Oct, 17. The October adjourned general sessions of the peace for the county of Middlesex commenced this morning at the Sessions-house, Clerkenwell-green, before Mr Bodkin (As sistant-Judge.) The calendar contains the names of 84 prisoners committed for trial, the greater'part of whom were charged with felony. The grand jury having been sworn, the Assistant-Judge briefly addressed them, and they returned to their room. Mr Jeaks, Mr Joseph Reed, and Mr H. L. Taylor (the chairman of the Markets Committee of the city of London, and a member of the Metropolitan Board of Works) were introduced, and severally took the oaths on being placed on the commission of the peace for the county of Middlesex. Ann Melville and Sarah Williams were indicted for keep ing a disorderly house in Oxenden-street, in the parish of St. Martins-in-the-Fields. Both the prisoners pleaded guilty. Mr Le Breton appeared for the prosecution ; Mr Ribton defended the prisoners, instructed by Mr Abrams. Mr Ribton, on behalf of the prisoners, submitted that as the house had been given up and the nuisance abated public justice would be satisfied by a fine instead of imprisonment, and that they should be allowed to go out on their own re cognisances, He went on to say that the parish authorities had acted with great unfairness in selecting this house for prosecution, while many houses in the same street, of a simi lar description, had been going on for years with the conniv ance and under the sanction of the parish authorities. These women had only held the house for two years, but many of the other houses had been going on for many years, and yet they had been passed by, and this parti cular house selected for prosecution. The authorities of St. Martin's had started up with a sudden zeal and pounced upon this house, and so far from being guardians of the public morals, as he had before said, they had connived at and sanctioned these houses for years past. Under these circumstances he hoped the Court would not send these women to prison, but would impose a fine and allow them to go at large on their own recognisances. Mr Le Breton said that the overseers had no power to in stitute these proceedings unless they were set in motion by the complaint of two inhabitants, who were required to enter into sureties that they would prosecute the parties. As to this house h; was one of the worst conducted in the street, and the defendants had disregarded frequent warnings. The Assistant-Judge said this was a very bad case, as it was proved in evidence that this place was frequented by old men and mere children, and the sentence on each of the prisoners was that they be imprisoned and kept to hard labour for 6 months. Richard Goddard, 19, and James Ward, 20, carmen, were indicted for maliciously inflicting grievous bodily harm upon Henry Spiking. Mr Cooper, instructed by Mr. Wontner, prosecuted. Mr Collins, instructed by Mr Abbott, defended the prisoners, who pleaded guilty to the indictment. The facts of this case presented some very atrocious con duct on the part of the prisoners. The prosecutor lived at Bath-row, Dalston, and was master horsekeeper to Messrs. Waring Brothers, contractors to the City branch of the North London Railway, and the prisoners were in their em ploy as carmen. The prosecutor had occasion to speak to them on the subject of their neglecting their work, and on Monday evening,- the 26th of September, he met them in Dalston-lane with three carts, and he asked them where the driver of the other cart was. They used some very vulgar language towards him, and threatened to pull him off his horse. When they went to the yard he handed to the pri soners their discharge tickets, and an order to receive their money. Ward wanted to know what the paper was, and the prosecutor told him it was his discharge, upon which both the prisoners , collared him, and began striking him, and a struggle ensued, which lasted for about 10 minutes, during which they threatened to .kill him. The prosecutor at last made his escape, and got into the kitchen of his own house, but even here he was followed by the prisoners. He took up a poker to fasten the door with it, but the prisoners burst the door open and took the poker from him. Seeing the deadly assault they intended, he made his second escape, when he was followed again by the pri soners, who struck him with the poker, and he fell down insensible, and he remembered no more what was done to him ; but on recovering his consciousness he found himself in bed at his own house, wounded all over, and blood run ning from his legs, ears, and back part of his head. This was seen by the time keeper, who saw the prosecutor fol lowed by the prisoners outside the gate, and just as he got outside Ward knocked him on the head with a poker, and he fell to the ground. As he was falling Goddard kicked him, and afterwards they ran away, throwing down the poker (a very heavy one, 3ft in length, and the bottom part about an inch in width, the top having a large knob). The prosecutor was led into his own house, and a surgeon was sent for; but while he was there the prisoners went and looked in et the window, and Goddard said, " We'll give you your -- dose to-night before you go out of the yard." They then went towards the gate, where they met the man who had been sent for a surgeon, and one of them knocked the man down, Mr Cockell, a surgeon, of Dalaton-lane, at length came, and ho found on the prosec .tor, on the scalp, a wound 31 inches long, dividing the integuments to the bone. There was a bruise behind the left car fr , m which blood was 000 zing, swellings on tho jaw on the right side, and the legs very severely bruised. On the forehead was a bruise, and over the region of the liver and several parts of the body were bruises. From the injuries he had received there was danger for a considerable time that erysipelas would set in, and it was believed that the prosecutor's recovery was ens tirely owing to his good constitution. Mr. Collins, for the prisoners, said it was quite clear that the prosecutor first used the poker, and that it was taken from him by the prisoners in their own defence. The Assistant-Judge said he never met with a more deli berate or aggravated case than thin. for here the prosecutor was knocked down, and naturally attempted to defend him self in the best way he could, but the prisoners took hold of the poker and struck him on the head with it, and it was a great mercy that he was not killed ; it was only through his having a strong constitution that his life was saved. The sentence of the Court upon them was that they be each imprisoned and kept to hard labour for two years. Edward Bruce pleaded guilty to stealing, on the sth of September, one coat, a silver mounted pipe, a snuff-box, and a pair of boots, the property of Thomas Ridley, Waiter at the Portland Club. George King, 76 D, stated that nothing was known of the prisoner, but at the time of his apprehension £1 8s 9d was found on him, and that his apprehension was entirely due to the pawnbroker's foreman, G. C. Badrete, in the employ, of Mr Joseph Baker, of No. 28, Great Marylt bone-street, who on several occasions had rendered the police great assistance in stopping and apprehending parties offering stolen property in pledge. The prisoner, who declined to give any account of him selfdp how he had disposed of the remainder of the property, was sentenced to bard labour for six months. The Assistant-Judge ordered that the sum of £1 8a 9d be divided between the prosecutor and the pawnbroker. Henry Brooks, 22, was indicted for stealing a watch, the property of Chas. Wm. Tucker, from his person. Mr Platt prosecuted ; Mr Itibton defended the prisoner. From the evidence it appeared that on the night of the Ist of October, between 10 and 11 o'clock, there was a traction engine in the Pentonville-road, and a crowd of people had assembled to see it. The prosecutor stood at the corner of Southampton-street, and while there he felt'a pull at his watch. He saw the prisoner's hand leaving him, and he passed something to a confederate who was standing near. He caught hold of the prisoner, forced him against some rail ings, and kept him there until a policeman came, who took him into custody. The watch was not found. Mr Ribton made an ingenious defence, but the Jury found the prisoner guilty. The Assistant-Judge sentenced him to be imprisoned and kept to hard labour for nine Calendar months. Francis Macuamara, 33, tailor, was indicted for stealing a box, and other articles, the property of Robert Harding. Mr Clarke prosecuted s Mr Ribton defended the prisoner. It appeared in this case that the prosecutor is a cab pro prietor and driver, and on the evening of Tuesday, the 4th of October, he was driving a cab from the Great Western Railway with two boxes on the roof. When ho was in Berkeley-street he heard a chain rattle, and on looking round ho saw the prisoner with his hand on the cord of one of the boxes, lifting it from the roof of the cab. He stopped the horses, and jumped d own an d se i ze d the prisoner as he was going away, telli ng hi m t h at h e wou ld give him into cus tody for attempting to steal the box off the cab. The pri soner said " Leave go, or I'll knock your head off ;" but he held him until a constable came and gave him into custody. Mrs Louisa Harding, of No. 4, North-row, Oxford-street, said she was in the cab on the night in question coming from the Great Western Railway, and the box mentioned by the cabman belonged to her. It contained wearing apparel. Mr Ribton addressed the jury, who found the prisoner guilty of an attempt to steal. Sergeant Coot, 8 S, and George Lockyer, of the House of Correction, was ready to prove several convictions against the prisoner, and one of them for penal servitude for 6 years. The Assistant •Judge said ho had btd a very narrow escape in only being convicted of a misdemeanour, and the sentence of the Court upon him was that ho be imprisoned and kept to hard labour for two years. (Before Mr Payne.) Joseph Brown, 26, and James Skinner, 61, surrendered to take their trial on an indictment charging them as fol lows :—The said Joseph Brown for stealing two iron drums and four tin cans, the property of Thomas Hubbuck and others, his masters, and the said James Skinner for receiv • ing the same well knowing them to have been stolen. This was a else postponed from last sessions. Mr Poland prosecuted, Mr Collins defended Skinner, and Mr Pater appeared for Brown. Mr Poland opened the t ase at some length, and called _ _ _ Arthur Meek, who said—l am a clerk to Thos. Hubbuck and others, of Ratcliffe, oil refiners and colour manufac turers. On Saturday, • Sept. 24, about half-past 6 in the morning, I met the prisoner Brown coming eut of the wharf with a can on his shoulder. I stopped him, and he said the can was for Messrs Maugham. of Shadwell. Suspecting him, I directed another clerk to follow him, and he was given into custody. I sent to Skinner's house and asked him if he had received any oil. He said "No." I then said he must go to the station, I went to his house with a policeman, and there saw 12 or:I4 cans, two of which I recognised as my master's property. Robert Morris said—l live at 36, Broad-street, Ratcliff. I am a clerk in Messrs Hubbuck's employ. I followed the prisoner for some time, but lost him. I searched Skinner's premises with the last witness, and found several cans be longing to the prosecutors. Police-constable 45 K said—l took the prisoners into custody. They denied the charge. Other evidence having been given, Mr Collins addressed the jury for his client, after which Mr Pater made a very telling speech for Brown. Mr Payne summed up the evidence. The jury found Brown Guilty and Skinner Not Guilty. -- Mr Payne, in passing sentence, said this was a bad offence, for which he (Brown) was liable to 14 years' penal servitude, but the sentence of the Court upon him was, that he be imprisoned and kept to hard labour for nine months. Chas. Stack, 17, French polisher, was convicted of stealing a pair of trousers, value 8s 6d, the property of Jacob Lazarus. Mr Payne sentenced him six months' hard labour. In eonsequence of its being supposed that Jas. Rowton, the clergyman who was convicted last sessions of indecently assaulting a boy on the London and North Western Rail way, would be brought up for judgment, the Court was very much crowded by persons anxious to hear the result ; but as the point of law reserved for the Court of Criminal Ap• peal cannot for some time be disposed of, the prisoner will not be brought up again uatil the latter end of November. The Great Fire at Pimlico, ADDITIONAL PARTICULARS. This fire has been attended with a far greater destruction of property than was at firest supposed. it is now stated that the premises, machinery, and stock in trade were in sured for £22,000, which is only a tithe of the actual loss. The offices that will suffer by the disaster are the follow ing :—The Commercial Union, liabilities, £3,500 ; the Mercantile, £3,500; the Queen, £2,500 ; the Royal, £3,500. There is a similar amount in the Guardian and another office. The whole of the arrangements for settling the claims for the various fire offices have been entrusted to Mr John James Close, and the superintending of the buildings has been entrusted to Mr Jennings, of the Guar dian office. That gentleman has already given orders to have the dangerous walls secured, so that the Victoria station may be guarded from further danger. The side which the fire had penetrated has already been shored up. The iron and glass roof shows unmistakable evidences of the intense heat that prevailed at that part of the station, for the glass is melted and the ironwork twisted. At five o'clock last night one of the land steamers was at work do*n the yard of Read's marble and stone steam sawing mills. Five immense jets of water were pro jected into the still burning mass. Near the shaft are several hundred tons of coal burning furiously, and it will take some time before the fire can be wholly extinguished. The lofty chimney still stands, and presents a singular appearance, one side being of an orange colour, owing to the action of the flame upon that particular part. The side walls adjoining it are in such a state that they are expected to fall betore they are shored up or pulled down. The firm was in the constant habit of turning out 1,000 wheels per week; consequently, besides the great number of men who will be thrown out of employment at the wheel works, a great many others will suffer from short work in many of the large carriage and waggon works in London. Mr Parfrey, the resident partner, was sleeping in an adjoining house when the fire was discovered, and he states that when he was called he found the greater part of the factory in fl Imes. He was certain that the five floors of the main building were on fire, as well as the engineers' shops and blacksmiths' shops. He also stated that he went over the works at 11 o'clock on Saturday night, when the place was to all appearance perfectly safe and free from fire. All the furnace fires had been extinguished before the men left off work in the afternoon. He therefore cannot form the least idea as to the origin of the fire. The Extraordinary Suicide of a Gentleman. At noon yesterday Mr Wm. Payne, the coroner for the city of London, held an inquiry at St. Bartholomew's Hos pital, into the circumstances of the death of Mr Charles Vie Ridout, aged 65, who committed suicide on the premises of the West Ham Gutta Percha Company, of which he was the manager. Mr W. Hancock appe&red to watch the case on the part of the company, Wm. Harvey, night watchman at the Gutta Percha Works, West-street, Smithfield, said that Mr Ridout was the confidential manager of the works. Witness last saw him alive at a quarter past 11 o'clock on Friday night. He had never been so late in the office before. He asked witness to fetch half a pint of beer, and witness went for it. The deceased had been writing all the evening—from 6 o'clock, when he had come to the office. Witness brought back the beer, but when passing the stable door ho heard a noise, ap parently from a pistol shot, followed by a groan, Witness ran into the stable and saw decoasad lying on the ground, with blood flowing from hie head. Witness thought ho was in a fit, and called for help. He tried to lift the deceased up, and asked him what was the matter, but he did not answer. A policeman came followed by a surgeon, who said he had been shot. The police found a pistol in the straw. Witness found a paper of bullets, powder, and caps, and two letters (produced). Witness noticed nothing, unusual about the deceased latterly, or when he directed witness to go out for the beer. Mr E ward Broughton, clerk at the gutty percha works, said he had known deceased for three years. Witness never observed that deceased's mind was disturbed in any way. The letters produced were in the deceased's handwriting. Witness knew that deceased was involved in pecuniary difficulties. By Mr Hancock—The deceased was in no way wrong in his accounts with respect to the G utta Percha Company. Parsons, 232, City police, produced a pocket pistol which was found in the stable by the side of the deceased. It had just been discharged. Mr Alfred Hancock, joint manager of the works with the deceased, said he had known him for three years and a half. He was latterly depressed very much; He was disappointed at not getting other employment. He was about to leave the Gutta Percha Company's employment because he was not required any longer. His accounts were all right. He was married and had two children, His incame from the company was £2OO a year, but he had other property of his own. On Friday afternoon witness saw him, and he was then rather melancholy. Mr F. Rowbottom said that latterly the deceased was dispirited, apparently at the prospect of the loss of employ. went. He was disappointed at not receiving certain sums of money on which he had calculated. Mr Botolph, house surgeon, said that the deceased was brought into the hospital insensible from a bullet wound, and he died near 3 o'clock on Saturday morning, The bul let was found in the upper part of his brain. The Coroner said that the letters alluded to by some of the witnesses were two in number—one was written to the wife of the deceased, and the other was addressed " To the Coroner and the Jury." The letter addressed to the Court was as follows : " To the Coroner and Jury. " Gentlemen,—As the law permits, or as it is customary for you to assume the right, of not confining your inquiry into the mere fact of death, but to extend it into the causes which led to self-slaughter, and as it is possible that I may be branded with the absurd stigma of felo de me, which was applicable only in a barbarous age, when, amongst our an cestors, men were the property of their lord, I desire to place at your disposal the best evidence—my own. " Throughout my life I enjoyed uninterrupted bodily health, which I thought nothing could break, but utter helpless, hopeless insolvency has overtaken me and weighed me down. It is better for a man to owe £lOO,OOO than £lOO if he is not in a position to pay the latter sum. The sum of £lOO would more than make mo a free man, but that is not to be got." The deceased then at great length detailed how, three years ago, he had borrowed a sum of £5OO, and how, to pay interest on the loan, he had sold £3OO worth of property for £7O, but that, nevertheless, all his efforts had loft him hope lesely embarrassed and involved. Ile continued : " It (the loan) answered its purpose at the time, but the end is that I am left without bread at 65. Let no one blame me for living beyond my means—for what were they ? Two hundred a year to support a wife and family. All those that knew me know whether my habits were not proper and sensible. " The thought of the children and their gent le mother was the only reward I had for struggling on for years in an occu pation I hold, and an employment I despised. So much for life—now for death. " The mind of man depends for its manifestation upon corporeal functions. A blow on the brain with a hammer would have converted a Shakspere or a Newton into drivel ling idiots. Where, then, would have been their magnifi cent creations or grand thoughts ? "I do not understand entering into eternity.' The phrase involves a contradiction in terms. Eternity is that which has neither beginning nor end. I have thought over all this until my brain has become like that of one that overhangs a precipice " No one has a belief other than fervent hope, earnest desire I We repeat what we have learned from others like parrots. There is more honesty in frank doubt than in weak bend 1. "For my part I can only believe in what I can thoroughly comprehend. "I die believing nothing, but hoping all things. I write all this because there is always so much said about death beh.g a ' rash act,' a 'rushing into the presence of one's Maker without God's permission.' I feel but an instru ment in God's hand for my own just punishment. I placed all my happiness in a home to which I had no right, for I had not the means necessary to keep it up. That darling angel I If I could possibly I would still struggle for her sake. And my child's cherub face is before me, saying, Papa, don't leave us.' What can I do ? But this is going back again to life. What tricks and subterfuges in order to make this home happy "I am ashamed to make so much fuss about dying, but the thought of them overcomes me. My dying averts ruin from another, who if I lived would be ruined too. Pardon mo this trouble, but perhaps some of you have children. Until the age of 60 I never was in difficulty. 1 trust you will take a charitable view of all, an d p ar d on me occupying your time. ,' Oct. 14." " CHARLES VIE RIDOITT. "To face death at the cannon's mouth in presence of thousands, and with the Victoria Cross to encourage your spirits is an easy task ; but the heart sinks when in the solitude of a chamber, shame, remorse, despair mock and mouth at you from the barrel of a pistol, and a little cherub cries out to you, 'Don't, papa ; papa, don't do it.' " The Coroner said that it would be for the jury to consi der whether the letter read would tend to show that the de ceased was in an unsound state of mind. If they were not of opinion that it did there could be no alternative but to return a verdict of felo de se. The Court was then cleared, and after a long delibera tion, the jury returned a verdict of " Suicide while in a state of unsound mind," SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS. TIMES.-Our last intelligence from Australia had prepared us for the angry and, as we think,ill advised communication from the Ministry to the Governor of Victoria which we publish today. Melbourne has long been in a ferment of agitation about the con. tinuance of transportation to Western Australia. It is not enough that the proportion of convicts hitherto sent thither should not be exceeded ; the colonists demand that the system should be aban.. doned altogether, whatever the inconvenience to Great Britain or the other parties concerned, Fail ing to obtain the unconditional submission of the Colonial-office to these terms, they have meditated various kinds of reprisals on the mother country. In the last session of the Melbourne Parliament it was gravely proposed to vote a sum of money to retrans port ticket-ofsleave men to our own shores. The motion was successfully resisted by the Government on the ground that it was premature, and that it would be better to wait for another despatch before taking any violent course. The despatch proved unsatisfactory, since it did not recognise the vali dity of the claims founded on the alleged influx of convicts from Western Australia, and did not report the passing of any measure for the abolition of transportation. Hereupon Mr. Edward Wilson came forward with a scheme of his own for effecting the same object by voluntary subscription. The plan was to invite " expirees" to emigrate homewards, granting them free passages. The very worst ruf fians among the expected applicants were to be se■ lected, and, lest captains should be averse to have them on board, these gentlemen were to sign an engagement pledging them to go into irons upon the commission of any outrage. The idea had been warmly taken up, and large subscriptions were pour ing in, according to our correspondent, when the last mail left, The present mail brings the news of another measure already adopted by the official ad visers of Sir Charles Darling, though the power of carrying it out must partly depend on the co•opera tion of other colonies. " Upon a careful considera tion of Mr Cardwell's despatch, written in the face of all the earnest representations addressed to her Majesty's Government"—so runs the minute—" it has been forced upon the attent ion of myself and my colleagues that further remonstrance is in it self useless, and that the time has arrived when it is incumbent upon us, in the exercise of our powers of self-government, to initiate legislation, in connexion with the colonies whose interests are alike affected, for our common protection." The Chief Secretary goes on to say that he has urged the Governments of the other free colonies to frame identical bills for cutting off Western Aus tralia from all intercourse with the rest of the con tinent, that her position as the only convict 'colony may be distinctly marked. He does not doubt that this suggestion will be universally approved, and he further requests the Governor to notify formally to the Imperial authorities that on May 1, 1865, the Victorian Government will cease to contribute to wards the postal subsidy of the Peninsular and Oriental Company, and will have nothing to do with the pending arrangement for a fortnightly service, unless the Company's ships be forbidden to touch at King George's Sound, or anywhere in Western Australia. This decision is stated to have cost its authors inexpressible pain, but to have been dictated by a sense of their responsibility to the people of this colony, on whose behalf they charge her Mft. jesty's Government with injustice to Australia, and in particular with a deviation from the terms of a previous declaration of the Duke of Newcastle. Upon the language and spirit of this document we forbear to comment. It would ill become the Minister of a great nation to allow his counsels to be swayed in dealing with a great question by the more or less respectful tone of remonstrances against his policy. If the temper of the Victorian public does not permit them to feel compunction or regret at the prospect of a collision with this country, the pride of the English public should not restrain them from confessing how deeply they would de plore it. We can afford to look at the situation of public affAirs without passion or resentment, and consider what ought to be done as though no threat had been used. Long before ezeitemout at Mel- bourne had reached its present pitch, we often had occasion to express our opinion on the right and expediency of transporting criminals to Western Australia, The right, in the abstract, we hold to be clear. Except upon the theory of the Monroe Doctrine—a theory which, as applied to Australia, the Anti-Transportation League of Victoria have expressly disclaimed—no colony can possibly be entitled to control the relations of the mother country with another colony. To maintain the con trary would be to claim for a dependency higher privileges of sovereignty than belong to an inde pendent Power, for no Europen State would pre.. sume to require a neighbouring State to keep its convict establishments at a distance from the Iron- tier. Legal right, however, is an unsafe and inade. quate guide in difficulties of this kind. If the free colonies of Australia are materially, though inci dentally, injured by the limited transportation to Western Australia,, there is no class or party in Great Britain that would refuse to take their com plaints into account. What, then, is the fact P We believe, in the first place, that there is a law in the colony of Victoria prohibiting the immigration of any criminal, unless his sentence has expired at least three years. It is not easy to reconcile this with the article of the Victorian Constitution which confers a vote . on " expirees," and even on those who have receiveil a conditional pardon, being otherwise duly qualified. However this may be we should have thought the Exclusion Act, if enforced by an effi cient police, ought to be an ample safeguard against the overflow of convicts from Western Australia, and we find that, in fact, it is so regarded at Port Adelaide, where no such law exists, and where the Legislature is urged to pass one exactly similar. Still, we are positively assured that in spite of all precautions many convicts do find their way to Port Phillip, and commit atrocious crimes there, and there seems no doubt that bushranging has revived on an alarming scale. Whether the " panic " produced by this danger in Australia, or the " panic " pro duced by garotting in Eagland, be the more reason able, or the more ignoble, and whether either panic has had anything to do with the conflict between the Colonial Office and the Victorian Government, we need not here discuss. It is enough for us that a fixed belief exists in that colony that a vital injury is inflicted on it by transportation to Wes tern Australia, and that the belief is at least not altogether unfounded. Unlike the older Australian settlements this flourishing province reaped, as it were, that which it had not sown, and from the first obtained a sufficient supply of labour without hav ing to petition for convicts. Colonial memories are short, and probably no Victorian politician remem bers or would care to recall the resolutions passed but twenty-five years ago by the Legislative Council of New South Wales, deprecating any change in the practice of assigning criminals as domestic ser vants, and recording their opinion that no other system of penal discipline would be found "so cheap, so effective, and so reformatory." The Mel bourne Cabinet takes its stand on the present inte rests of Victoria alone, and it has a right to do so. The other colonies have still to speak for themselves on the point now submitted to them, and we are quite sure that any grievances which they may allege will receive calm and impartial consideration from Mr Cardwell. We do not envy him the task of reconciling the prerogatives of the Crown with the pretensions of Sir Charles Darling's "respons ible" advisers; but he will possess one inestimable advantage. He represents a client who has no other desire or object than to do what is just to all, neither more nor less, and who will gladly endorse any settlement of the question, cost what it may, that does not involve the sacrifice of a higher duty than conciliation. POST.—To-day a bazaar will be opened at Liver pool in aid of a fund recently established in this country for the relief of those Confederate soldiers who have been made prisoners of war, and who, but for the assistants furnished them by their friends, would be exposed in all their severity to those privations which are inseparable from cap tivity in an enemy's hands. In the Northern States a similar fund exists for the relief of Federal pris soners, and in the one case, as in the other, the dis tribution of the proceeds thus raised is entrusted to the Government which is unavoidably compelled to eeprive those who are the objects of the charity of their freedom. The civil war now raging in America has worked so many social changes in the condition of the population, it has awakened such apparently inextinguishable hatred between men previously united by all the bonds of a common Citizenship, and glorying in all the greatness and prosperity of a common State, and has, unhappily, left to be recorded on the page of history deeds which posterity may well hesitate to believe were committed by a Christian people, that it is with un feigned gratification that one turns to the contena% plation of acts which prove that war, even in its bitterest and most relentless form, cannot entirely. counteract the humanising influences of religion a n g , civilisation. As belligerents, the North and South , ' meet on the battlefield ; the exigencies of warfar e require that they shoul I respectively employ every means in their power to secure victory, even tbough it must be purchased with thousands of lives; but when the battle is over, when the last shot has been fired, when the vanquished, despite all their valour, have been c om p e ll e d t o re ti r e, and When the victors find, thickly strewn amongst the slain over the hard-won field, men who have fallen dis abled fighting no less valiantly than themselvesl and who may yet live again to draw the aver ' under happier circumstan ces i n d e fence of t h eir State, then it is when the more kindly feelings of human nature reassert themselves, and th e captors and the captured are fain to acknowledge that they belong to one great family, and are knit together by ties which mortal strife can nev e ., entirely dissolve. The prog r e s s o f c i v ilisation h a s never been more strikingly m a rk e d than by t h e manner in which, from time to time, the asperit ie s of warfare have been tempered, and so deeply jute rested is the entire human race in these ameliora: lions that nothing serves to excite more universal.: odium than any apparent retrocession on the Pa r '' of a belligerent in the mode of conducting War' Savages slay their captives on the field of battles or reserve them for cruel tortures. Civilised men give quarter, and content themselves with depriv ing those who fall into their hands of the meal' of doing further injury by retaining them in car tivity till the conclusion of hostilities. It is, bog' ever, a further step when the conquerors express their willingness to distribute amongst their prise ' ners such necessaries as the i r f r i e nds may thi n g proper to supply them with. The opening ' 3l i the bazaar in aid of Southern Soldiers' Relief Fan' reminds us that the Governments of both sections of the former American Republic have gen erously_ co-operated in carrying i n t o e ff ec t th e w i s hes of th e friends of those prisoners who have fallen int o their hands, and we take th e p r e sen t o pportunit y of noticing a circumstance which is as creditable to the one as it is to the othe r . It i s cer t a inly 110 t surprising that an effort should be made in Liver pool to aid those who, in supporting the Confede• rate cause, have fallen into the hands of their foes; and who, wounded and sick, are, notwithstandi n g the humanity of the Federal Government, neces; eerily deprived of every little comfort which cosh' make their thraldom endurable. Lancashire owe s her wealth and her prosperity mainly to the Southern States of America ; and, a lth o ugh sb e has suffered in common with th ose o th e r State s through the present war, still she cannot but en' tertain a sympathy for those to whom she is debted for so much, and may well afford, on L IT occasion like the present, to evince th a t sympatual in a substantial form. It i s s carce ly necessary to say that however desirous a belligerent PoWB r may be of alleviating the miseries of those Who are made prisoners of war, it is compelled le withhold from them almost everything whichis not a necessary of life. The population of the Norther n States, recognising this fact, have from their 0°, 1 4 paratively boundless resources with ease obtain"' and transmitted to the South fpr distributi on amongst the Federal prisoners large quantities medical stores, wine, clothing, books, &c. people of the South are differently situated. Th e ,': territories have supplied f or near ly f our y e ars t'!" battle-ground for the contending armies, their country has been ravaged a nd d evas t e d, th e ir por ts blockaded, their commerce extinguished, and Oa` energies and resources taxed to the utmost in order to enable them to cope successfully with the gig a ." tic armies launched against them by a population not only five times more nnmerous than their oWn , but, with an open seaboard, enabled to recruit these armies from every quarter of the globe. The Con' federate Government willingly act as almoners fo r those who are desirous of befriending the prisone rs whom theyaire compelled to detain, but the straits in which their own people are placed preclude them from furnishing the same ample opportunities t ° the Government at Washington of performing 6 reciprocal office. It is more blessed to give than t h e receive, and perhaps there are no o c cas i ons on whir the truth of this saying is more apparent than is the performance of what we may be permitted to call acts of international kindness and benevolence; States have begun to lose that isolated character cu which in former times they seemed never capabl e of divesting themselves, and at length acknowledg e the connection which subsists between them. The sympathies of mankind have ceased to be confine' within the spheres of those who acknowledge th e same Sovereign or live within the limits of the same State. The calamity which strikes down one peopl e is, for that very reason, consid ere d as s p ec ially cite culated to awaken the benevolence of those Wh o have escaped the blow ; and hence it h as h a ppene d that, despite difference of race and of creed, n a tions have (more especially during the past few years) gladly—indeed we might say eagerly—seized ever! opportunity of furnishing mutual assistance . Turkey, notwithstanding the crippled state of he r resources, a short time since generously lent a heir' ing hand in alleviating distress in this country, and England, in her turn, raised a fond to aid the Turkish Government in diminishing the horrors which attended the Circassian exodus. Notwit" standing the prejudice entertai ne d aga inst Urea' , Britain by the population of the Federal States, they chartered a magnificent vessel and loaded be; to the bulwarks with stores to be distributed amongst the operatives of Lancashire who had been thrown out of employment by the suspension of the Southern cotton trade, The Southern Confederal is for the present cut off from the rest of the world; it cannot give, and it is almost equally precluded from receiving. It would therefore be a moat fitting and suitable mode of manifesting sympathy, Wit" out at the same time infringing that neutrality which should be observed between the belligeren tigt if those who have benefited so much in past tim es by the Southern trade, and who look with eager' ness for its re-establishment, should now c ontribut e to a fund which is intended solely to alleviate th e hard lot of men whom the fortune of war has sepir rated from those to whom they were a solace, an" in a large majority of cases, a support. COUNTRY MARKETS. COLCHESTER—OCT. 15. We had a small supply of wheat on offer at our mark et to-day, and previous quotation s were f u ll y ma i n tained. Fine barley saleable at late prices ; other sorts a slow sa le ' Beans rather cheaper, and peas maintain their value. Wheat, white. 40s 46s Bean s , M azagan 366 33s os red 36s 42s middle & 5ma11.35 8 35s qs 3BB Barley Oats 2os 25s gre y 360 ("'"° GLOUCESTER—OCT. 15. • t o There was an average supply of w h ea t t o -day aL v ia market, which sold slowly at l a t e p r i ces . F ore i g n v 7BO extremely limited demand, at former rates. Barley an oats dull. Beans unaltered. NORTHAMPTON—OCT. 15. Wheat in moderate show to-day, and met witla rather . 11 . firm inquiry, at fully late quo t a ti ons . B ar l ey wa s in felt supply at late prices. Oats w ere i n f a i r supp l y . B e ans p at. —White wheat, new, 39s to 44s ; new red, 36s to 40.... s old, 37s to 41s per qr. Ba r l e y, new malting, 32s to 3 44 ` Beans, 39s to 425. Peas, 37s to 42s per qr. CHELMSFORD—OcT. 14. At this corn exchange to-day the supply of wheat W ag plentiful, but we had a dull t ra d e , an d no advance was made on last week's quotations. Spring corn very inactive at about lato rates. Wheat, old white 408 45s new 40s 44s old red 39s 40s new 37s 40s Barley 25s 32s Chevalier ..268 33s Grinding.. 20s 28s Malt.... 6ls 67s Chevalier 64s 68s Oats 20s 263, Peas, Partridge 36s 38 2 White 30s 33° Boiling 38a 422 Dun 31s 01 Ditto new —s Beans, Tick, old 34s 373 new --a „, Harrow Ticks 3ss 3° : new —s Mazagan 33s 3'3 KIRKCALDY GRAIN—OCT. 15. da ys We had small s u ppli es o f wheat, barley, and oats t o - ~,,,t which sold freely, an d pr i ces were much the same as 'P." week, Wheat. Barley. Oath. Fir5t.....368 Od 24s Od I 17s 8d Second ..38s Od 25 s Od 18 8 6d Third.... 408 Od 27 s Od 20s Od Births. APPELBEE.-00. the 16th inst., at the Bank. Tewkeebtillt the wife of Thomas Appelbee, Esq., of a daughter. e BARCHARD.—On the 15th inst., the wif e o f Elphillß t°ll Barchard, Esq., of a daughter. CUP.MIDE.—On the 15th inst„ at Acle, Mrs. Hy. Cilia° of a daughter. HOLT.—On the 17th inst., at 18, Lowe r B e l gr ave-stre eti the wife of Vesey W. Holt, Esq., of a son. Marriages. ARNOLD—CASTON.—On the 13th inst., at Saint James of Taunton, Captain Arnold, of Nethercott Ball, De l , i , to Georgians Eliz a b e th, on l y daughter of J. C. C 98"" Esq., of The Priory, Taunton. ROGERS—FAWSSETT,— On the 15th Ind , at Kensing t l l l George A. Ro gers , E sq , of The Grove,. EallogoAls Doctor's-co mmons, to Rose, daughter of the late Caw.' Fawssett, Esq., of Edwardes-square, Kensington. Deaths. C..ANwEid, —On the IGth inst., William Canwell, of 4, Blonafield-terrace, Bayswater, and Old Jewry C" 11---' bers, aged 33. FRICKER.—On the 16th inst,, Mrs. Frickor, of Tho $ llll4 Essex-street, Strand. FEIST.-0a the 16th inst. at ChevelyVilla, Cro9 Edward, youngest surviving son of the late Chas.): e istr aged 22. IhmuEs.—On th© 14th inst., Mrs. Hughes, aged 61. at Cheltenham, the goo, London: Prinzed and l'rblished by WILLIAM ANDRE of No. 112, Strand, Printer, at Tna Suiv Oilier No- Strand, in the Precinct, of the Svvoy, n the CoUll t Y ° Atititticaex,— Tueaday, October 18, 1804.